My Spanish Escapades: Whats a Madrileña?

Two weeks ago, gosh I'm behind, I kicked off my marathon (second) spring break journey with a weekend in Madrid with my cultural expression interest group. We had to be at the train station to catch the Ave to Madrid at 7:20 AM, which meant leaving my house at 6:30 AM, and as per usual when I told my Señora this she refused to believe me and told me that she highly doubted any trains left that early. Contrary to popular belief, my train did indeed leave by 7:45 AM and I was on my way to Madrid. Before I go any further I need to take a moment to rave about the Ave, it is a non-stop high speed train, our trip to Madrid which would take roughly six hours by car took just two and a half on the Ave, and it was much more comfortable than a bus or an airplane, plus they played a movie!

It was a rough morning on the Ave.

We got to Madrid around 11 AM, took a quick break for churros and café, then checked in to our hostel. It was the biggest hostel I've ever stayed in, I actually got lost trying to get from my room on the second floor back to the lobby. I stayed in a five person room with Kate, Allison and two other really nice girls from my group. After a little time to freshen up we met back downstairs for a walking tour of the city center of Madrid, it was a little rainy and cold but Madrid is a very interesting city.

Me and the Oso y Madroño (bear and strawberry tree) which is the symbol of Madrid. Not quite sure why, I saw neither bears nor strawberry trees.

Kilometer zero, the center point of all maps of Spain.

Madrid even has a ham museum!

We also visited Plaza Mayor, the biggest plaza in Madrid. It is where they used to hold bull fights and all important cultural events. Now it is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Madrid. We went into the Catedral de Madrid which, although I wasn't a fan of the outside, really enjoyed. The inside was very contemporary and modern, much less stuffy and wasn't as full of icons as some of the other cathedrals. The other place that we were supposed to go to on this tour was the Palacio Real, or royal palace. We got to see the outside but we weren't able to go inside because some dignitary, I'm pretending it was the King, was visiting. Fun fact, although it is the biggest and grandest of all the palaces the King doesn't actually live there, he lives in a smaller palace outside of the city.

Hard to see but that entire wall has different frescos on it.

Trying to capture all of Plaza Mayor!

Catedral de Madrid, much newer than most of the cathedrals in Spain.

Funky stained glass and ceilings.

I really liked this ceiling.

The impressive Palacio Real.

I'm obsessed with all the extravagant light posts in Spain.

Our tour lasted a few hours, then it was back to the hostel where we grabbed a quick bite to eat at a Kebob place, Madrid has an abundance of pizza and kebob restaurants not sure why. Then we had to get ready to go the the theatre. We took the metro there which at this point in my travels I was still disproportionately excited about, my group which was mostly made up of East coasters didn't understand my enthusiasm. The play we saw was actually more of a musical, Albert Boadella's Amadeu. It was a musical that told life story of famous Catalan composer Amadeo Vives, through a mash up of zarzuelas, which Amadeo is most known for and rock music to showcase the qualities that Amadeo most prized in his musical arrangements. I really enjoyed the musical, the singing and performances were amazing, there wasn't a lot of talking and it was an opera so I wouldn't have understood the words even if the were speaking English, so I didn't feel like I missed out on the story line. That night as soon as the play was over Allison, Kate and I made our way back to the hostel and got a full nights sleep because we knew we would have a very busy day on Saturday.

Drinking some café before the play.

Saturday morning after a quick hostel breakfast of cereal, which I hadn't had in months, we hopped on a bus to the Museo del Traje, or dress museum. It is a museum that displays Spanish garments, both men and womens from the 16th century until present. This was hands down the part of the trip I was most excited for, ever since I was little I've loved the "olden days" dresses, with the corsets, hoop skirts and big bustles. I was in heaven getting to see them in person, and of course the modern day dresses were gorgeous as well, I fell in love with a sparkly Versace number, and was on the verge of stealing a flawless 18th century ring. Despite the fact that we weren't supposed to take pictures I was hell bent on getting a few, this museum was what I had been waiting for after all, so if you promise not to tell I'll share a few with you.

These are adult clothes, people used to be so tiny!

Cute heels, no? They're mens.

Pretty little 18th century dress.

Check out that bustle, the name for this style in Spanish translates to horse, I think it's appropriate.

Tiny, tiny waist.

I think this was my favorite modern dress.

This one was so unbelievably sparkly in person.

After the Museo del Traje we had a yummy group lunch at a pizza place where I had the best cucumber, tomato and goat cheese salad with balsamic, it was so good to have salad that wasn't drenched in creamy dressing. Then we went to La Reina Sofía, which is home to all of Spain's best 20th century art. We saw a ton of paintings by Picasso and Dalí, including Picasso's famous Guernica, which is a depiction of the horrific bombings that happened to that town during the Spanish Civil War, it is a very gruesome, haunting piece. Picasso's work is great but I'm actually a much bigger fan of Dalí's work, even though he was one messed up, hateful man he sure knew how to paint an interesting picture, I could stare at them for hours and still manage to find something new. Going to the museum was great because we had a guided tour and that way we got to learn something about the artists, paintings and the motivations behind them, it made the time in the museum much more enjoyable and worthwhile than just wandering aimlessly and not really getting anything out of the experience.

Guernica, interesting fact is that Picasso wouldn't let this painting stay in Spain until the Franco Regime had ended.

I think it's interesting that the same person painted these two.

We finished at La Reina Sofía around 5:30 PM and while most people just went back to the hostel, Allison and I stayed with one of our group leaders, Javi who offered to take anyone who wanted to go to the Prado. I knew I had to go, even if I was tired, because the Prado is arguably the most famous art museum in Spain. My Señora loves Madrid and looked at me as if I had killed Pantera when I told her I didn't know if we were going to the Prado, so I knew just for that reason that I couldn't go back to Sevilla without seeing it. The Prado had much older works of art, we mostly saw works by Goya and Velazquez.

Second of May 1808.

La Maja Vestida, She was originally naked but there were objects so Goya painted a second version with clothes.

Las Meninas. (Velazquez)

That night, exhausted Allison and I took a nap and then Kate, Allison and I spent about an hour trying to find a mexican restaurant that was supposed to be "almost as good as chipotle" and "super close to our hostel" turns out it was we were just making a big circle around it. We finally found it and it didn't disappoint, it was the spiciest thing I'd had in months and it was scrumptious.

Before I knew it Sunday morning rolled around and after a quick hostel breakfast our group headed off to El Rostro, kind of an outdoor flea/crafts market. We spent a couple hours there and then my group had to leave to go to the train station and take the Ave back to Sevilla. I however was spending a few extra hours in Madrid while I waited for my friend Gilana to get in from Valencia s o that we could take a plane to Dublin and start leg two of our spring break adventure in Dublin. While I waited for her I decided to visit the Jardines Botanicos Reales or Royal Botanic Gardens. They were gorgeous, a complete oasis in the middle of the city, I happily spent three hours wandering around in there and taking pictures while I waited for Gilana.

Really big tulips.

I thought these were fun.

Apparently I really like pink flowers.

Ginormous tree!

Gilana arrived at about 3 PM and we didn't have to leave for the airport until 6:30 PM so we had a couple hours to kill and I took her on a small tour of Madrid! Since I was such an expert after three days. :)